- BAGHDAD -- Behind the machinegun
nests and coiled razor wire of Baghdad's "Green Zone", American
civilian contractors appear more furious and frightened than at any time
since they began the task of rebuilding Iraq.
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- The murder and mutilation of four American security guards
in Fallujah has shaken morale among those who run the world's largest reconstruction
effort, with a budget exceeding £10 billion.
-
- Searing images of burnt bodies in Fallujah have caused
fear to mix with a yearning for vengeance.
-
- "Let's just go in and level the town," said
one angry American civilian. "Let's tell them to get their women and
children out and then go in and level it.
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- "Why are these Iraqis protesting against us? They
are the ones who are killing us, not the other way round."
-
- Another American civilian nodded in agreement that reconstruction
in Fallujah should be thrown into reverse. "That's exactly what we
should do," he said.
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- Both men spoke aboard one of the air-conditioned shuttle
buses that ferry the Coalition Provisional Authority's officials and contractors
around their heavily fortified enclave in central Baghdad. The Green Zone
has grown continuously over the past six months and its 15ft concrete wall
now stretches for 20 miles, enclosing a vast area of central Baghdad.
-
- Even before the murders in Fallujah, civilian contractors
made only fleeting forays beyond this hermetically sealed world.
-
- They will be less willing to venture out now. "If
I put down 'Fallujah' on a travel request form, I think they'd laugh at
me," said one official. Nearby, helicopters hovered over the Tigris,
which has become the moat behind which the coalition lives and works in
Baghdad.
-
- Black Hawk helicopters sweep the area, trying to spot
the insurgents who frequently bombard the "Green Zone" with mortar
bombs. Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, condemned the Fallujah
murders when he addressed newly trained Iraqi police recruits.
-
- "The cowards and ghouls who acted yesterday represent
the worst of society," said Mr Bremer, adding that the "despicable"
crime would not be allowed to go unpunished.
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- The coalition claims to have carried out 18,000 reconstruction
projects since April. According to Dan Senor, Mr Bremer's spokesman, between
75 and 100 are completed every day.
-
- Yet the reconstruction effort is weighted towards the
safer areas of southern Iraq. The practical difficulties of travel elsewhere
in the country are overwhelming.
-
- Brig-Gen Mark Kimmitt, the US deputy director of operations
in Iraq, said that "operations remain relatively stable". But
even inside the Green Zone, he is shadowed by two armed bodyguards.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/02/wirq102
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